Timebomb
by Dingleberry
Summary: Brennan and Shalimar have a run-in with some GSA agents
1. Chapter 1

**TIMEBOMB**

Rated: R for language and violence

Disclaimer - I do not own any of the Mutant X characters in this story, they belong to Tribune Entertainment Company. No copyright infringement is intended. 

* * *

Brennan and Shalimar left the mall and made their way to the car in the parking garage.

"I can't believe that you manage to find at least something EVERYTIME you go to the mall," Brennan commented.

Shalimar smiled, "It's a woman's natural-born ability to spot sales wherever we go. Especially at the mall. And we know to take full advantage of these sales. It's simple, spend less money and you can buy more stuff."

Brennan shook his head.

They reached the level in the garage where they were parked and were greeted by two men dressed head-to-toe in black, GSA agents.

Shalimar sighed, "Here we go again. That's three times this week. Did they not learn the third time?"

Brennan shrugged and looked at her, "Shall we?"

Shalimar tossed her bags aside and readied herself for the fight.

The two men began walking quickly towards them and Brennan got a bolt of energy ready for them. In one quick thrust, Brennan let the bolt go towards one of them, stopping him instantly and sending him crashing to the ground.

The other agent came at Shalimar. She jumped up into the air and kicked out, catching the man on the chin and sending him flailing backwards. Before he could regain his balance, she came back down, landed on her feet and kicked out, hitting him in the chest and knocking him to the ground.

Brennan ran over to the agent he'd laid out and the man sprang to his feet, ready to fight again. Brennan obliged him with some hand-to-hand combat. Both exchanged some wicked blows, neither getting the least bit tired.

Shalimar reached down and went to grab the man's jacket collar but he kicked out and hit her in the stomach. She fell back, coughing as she tried to get the air back into her lungs. He came at her and was about to kick her again but she grabbed his foot and twisted it, hearing his ankle snap. The man yelped in pain and hobbled around as he made his way over to where his partner was fighting Brennan. "Come on, let's get out of here!"

The two agents ran to a black vehicle parked not too far from where they were as Shalimar and Brennan looked on. "Looks like they're gonna go crying back to Mama Bear again," Brennan chuckled as he wiped some blood from his lip.

Shalimar laughed but then frowned at the sight of his battered face.

Suddenly, the agents screeched from their parking space and sped right for them. "Look out!" Brennan said as he grabbed Shalimar and tackled her to the ground to get her out of the path of the car. As the car neared them and then passed, several shots rang out. Then the car disappeared.

Brennan was on top of Shalimar. He was almost afraid to get up, for fear that one of the agents might be behind them with a gun trained on them. He could feel Shalimar breathing heavily underneath him and he sensed that something was wrong. Slowly, he craned his neck around to see if anyone was behind them. Finding no one, he rolled off of her and immediately noted the blood on the cement floor. Knowing it wasn't his, he began to panic, "Shal?!?"

Shalimar didn't answer, just small sobs of pain escaped from her.

"Shal, where are you hit?" he asked as he put a hand on her shoulder, inspecting the back of her body for gunshot wounds. Then he looked towards her left thigh. Blood was spilling onto the cement from a wound, or wounds, in her leg, he wasn't sure at this point. "I'm gonna roll you over real easy." Brennan rolled her over onto her back and hissed at the sight of the bloody wound just above her knee. 

Shalimar's facial expression was a grimace of pain. She tried to keep from crying, she didn't like for him to see her cry, but it wasn't working. 

Brennan took off his belt and tied it tightly above the wound. Shalimar screamed out in pain as she grasped her leg. "I'm sorry," he said with tears brimming in his own eyes. "I'm gonna help you into the car. We have to get you back to Sanctuary fast."

"Yeah, I'd say some medical attention is needed," she said, trying to lighten the mood. She flashed him a quick smile but then bit on her lower lip as the pain radiated from her leg.

Brennan got her into the car and sped off towards Sanctuary. "Adam!" he yelled into him Comlink ring. 

"Brennan? What's the matter?" Adam asked in a concerned voice.

"Some GSA agents came after us again. Shalimar's been shot. We're on our way back to Sanctuary right now."

Emma and Jesse who were sitting near by, overheard the conversation and immediately turned their attention to Adam.

"I'll get the lab prepped. How far..."

"Five minutes," Brennan said. He almost seemed as if he were out of breath, but it was just fear taking over his body. He turned and looked at Shalimar, "How you doing?"

She didn't answer.

"Shalimar?" he said with a hitch in his voice. "Shalimar!" He quickly pulled the car over and threw it into park. Reaching out towards her he felt the side of her neck for a pulse. He held his breath and after a moment he felt a weak one. Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, he patted her cheek. "Hang on!" Throwing the gear into drive, he peeled away and continued home.


	2. Chapter 2

Brennan burst into the lab with Shalimar's limp form. Adam and the others quickly gathered around to help Brennan.

He set her down gently on the steel table and quickly moved away in order to let Adam check her out.

"My God!" Adam exclaimed as he examined her wound. "She's bleeding badly." He ran over to a computer and began typing away on its keyboard. "Okay, everyone stand back while I do a scan."

Everyone complied and looked on helplessly as the computer scanned a bright green light over Shalimar's body.

After it was finished, the light turned off and Adam read the results. Shaking his head he slammed his hand down on the table.

"Adam? What is it?" Emma asked with tears in her eyes.

"The bullet nicked the main artery in her leg. She's already lost almost half of her blood supply." Adam quickly went to Shalimar's side and inserted a needle into her arm, taping it in place. "I'm gonna keep blood going in until I can repair it."

Emma looked at Jesse who was staring at Shalimar in shock. She put an arm around him to comfort him.

"Brennan, can you do an enhancement scan on the wound while I prep?"

Brennan didn't answer and went right to work. This time, a bright blue light shined onto Shalimar's wound and after a few minutes it turned off. An image of the bullet soon appeared on a monitor. Brennan looked at it in confusion, "What the hell is that?"

Adam flew to his side and took a look at the screen. "Jesus!" he said as he pulled up different views of the bullet on the screen. He swallowed hard and ran his fingers through his hair, "That's not a bullet. That's a bomb!"

Everyone looked at one another. The silence was deafening.

"Everyone out!" Adam began yelling. "Out!"

"But..." Jesse started to say but was quickly cut off.

"Now! I can't risk all of your lives. I want all of you to go to the shelter area and stay there until I come get you. That is if..."

"Don't even say that!" Emma said as she began to cry.

"I'm sorry," Adam said as he embraced her. "It's just that we need to be realistic here. It COULD happen."

"But it won't," Jesse said as he patted Adam on the back. "Come on guys, let's let Adam get to work."

Each team member gave Shalimar a kiss before leaving the room, Brennan taking a longer moment to say good bye.

Adam tried his best to keep his composure and immediately went to work. 

Just as he sat down beside Shalimar his phone began to ring. He looked at it on the table and ignored it. Or at least he tried to. It kept ringing and ringing. So he finally got up and grabbed it. "Hello!"

"Hostile, aren't we?" Eckhart said.

"What the hell do you want?"

"I just wanted to see if one of your precious mutants received my special gift."

"You bastard!" Adam fumed.

"I take that as a yes. May I ask which one? Brennan or the ever so lovely Shalimar? Or maybe both?"

"Look, I don't know what sick little game you're up to but..."

"Did you give her some pain medication yet?"

Adam stopped for a moment. "If you knew who got shot then why did you ask me which one it was?"

"I didn't know until your outburst. I know how you feel about the feral. That's how I determined who it was. Now, my other question, did you give her some pain medication yet?"  


"Yes, why?"

"Oh goodie. That's what starts the timer on the device, just so you know."

Adam was just about to throw the phone across the room in anger but stopped himself as he realized talking to Eckhart might be his only chance in saving Shalimar's life.

"Take a good look at the top of the device and you will see a beautiful number sequence counting down."

Adam zoomed in on the device and saw what Eckhart was referring to.

"You better hurry," Eckhart said as he hung up the phone.

Adam slammed the phone down and the focused his attention on Shalimar. He inspected the device carefully and knew that Eckhart was right, time was wasting.

After a few moments, Adam reached over towards one of the keyboards and turned off Shalimar's pain medication. He returned to the view of the device and saw that the timer had stopped. "Dammit! You sick son of a bitch!" He checked Shalimar's vitals and she was was hanging on strong with everything she had. But without the medication she would be waking up at any moment, and that could mean trouble.

Adam activated his Comlink, "Brennan?"

"Yeah, Adam? Is everything okay?"

"No, I need you up here FAST!"

Brennan didn't answer and immediately dashed out of the room.

When he arrived at the lab his face was pale with fear.

"I need you to stay near her for when she wakes up," Adam instructed him.

Brennan was confused, "When she wakes up? Did you get it out?"

"No. That sick bastard Eckhart put a timer on the bomb that's powered by pain medication. I stopped the dosage and the timer turned off. She'll be waking up any..." Adam stopped and noticed Shalimar begin to stir, "minute now. Try and keep her calm and still."

Shalimar's eyes fluttered open and she noticed Brennan standing next to her. "Where am I?"

"You're in the lab, you got hurt. You need to stay very still," Brennan instructed her.

The pain slowly came back to her and she clenched her teeth against it. Looking down she saw her bloody leg and Adam poking into the wound. "What the?" She started to move and Adam got up.

"Shalimar, please. You need to stay very still," he said.

"Why am I awake while you're doing this?" she said through flashes of pain.

"It's a long story and I don't have time to explain. Just PLEASE stay as still as you possibly can."

Shalimar's heart monitor beeped quickly, causing Brennan to hang onto her tighter. "Shhh, it's going to be okay. Squeeze my hand."

Adam continued to inspect the device and then his phone started to ring again. Grabbing it, he yelled into the mouthpiece, "What!"

"Well, you answered the phone so that means it didn't go off yet," Eckhart said.

Adam gritted his teeth and wanted to unload on him but didn't want to do it in front of Shalimar, for fear she might begin to panic.

"Can you at least tell me why you did this?" Adam asked.

"Frankly, I just wanted to see if you could do it. I want to see what your limits are."

Shalimar began to sob as the pain attacked her body.

"Hmmm, I see you've managed to figure out how to turn the timer off judging by the fact that Miss Fox is awake. Sucks to be her right now because the bomb is still active."

"Listen you fuck, just tell me how to disarm it. You've played your stupid game long enough."

"1984 Adam. Just think back to 1984." Eckhart hung up the phone.

"What's going on? Someone tell me!" Shalimar demanded.

Adam threw the phone.

Brennan looked at Adam. "What'd he say?"

"He said to think back to 1984. I have no idea what..." Adam stopped and then it became clear. "Oh my God," he said as he took another look at the device.

"What is it?" Brennan asked.

Adam worked on the device as he spoke, "Back in 1984 there were some black-market of mutant bombs created. I thought this one looked a little similar but I wasn't completely sure." He clipped some wires and then pulled out what looked like a small fuse. "Got it!" He programmed the pain medication to restart administering."Shalimar? You're going to be fine. I'm able to give you some pain medication now so you're going to go back to sleep."

Shalimar nodded slightly, "You two have a lot of explaining to do when I wake up."

Brennan and Adam laughed and watched as she drifted off to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Adam managed to repair the injured artery in Shalimar's leg with the aid of the advanced equipment he had in the lab.

Brennan shook Adam's hand, "Good work, Adam. Thank you."

"No need to thank me," Adam said with a smile. "She's going to be sore for quite a while and will need some help getting around. I trust that you can assist her?"

Brennan smiled widely, "You know I'm here for her."

* * *

Shalimar woke up and felt the presence of someone in the room with her. Turning her head to the side she saw Brennan approaching her.

"How you feeling?" he asked.

"Better, now that you're here."

He leaned over and kissed her on the lips. "You really had us worried."

Shalimar shifted a little, trying to get comfortable but it just wasn't happening. "Argh, my leg is throbbing."

"Try not to move around. If you need anything I'm here to wait on you."

Shalimar smiled, "Hmmm, I like this. My own personal servant?"

"Yup."

"Okay. Kiss me again, please."

Brennan obeyed and kissed her again. When he pulled away he smiled and looked into her eyes as he stroked her cheek. "I don't ever want to lose you."

Shalimar reached up and took his hand, "You won't."

"But I almost did. Seeing you so hurt and bleeding tore my insides apart. I don't think I can handle it if it happens again. Or worse, if you were killed."

Shalimar put her finger over his lips, "Shhh, don't talk like that. I'm fine."

Brennan held onto her hand tightly, "I just think that maybe..."

"What?"  


"Maybe you shouldn't be a part of Mutant X."

Shalimar's eyebrows creased, "What! Are you saying that I can't handle myself or that I'm a liability to the team or something? Because if that's what you're saying..." She stopped as a wave of pain flared up.

"Wait, slow down. Take it easy. That's not what I'm saying," he said as he rubbed her shoulder to comfort her through the pain. "I'm just saying that because that would get you out of danger."

A tear from the pain rolled down Shalimar's cheek. "You can't protect me forever. I'm a mutant. Wherever I go I'm going to run into trouble, even if I'm not associated with Mutant X."

Brennan hung his head, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you, especially in your condition."

Shalimar reached out and put her hand under his chin to lift it, "It's okay. I know you're just looking out for me and I appreciate it. But we're a team, you and I, and I don't want that to change."

Brennan smiled at her and gave her another kiss.

THE END


End file.
